Wikipedia talk:The Core Contest#Announcement

Hi, there's a new $100 prize for core article improvement and quality at Wikipedia:The World Destubathon. Three weeks. All quality work welcome, STEM and geography core articles especially! If anybody is missing the Core Contest and wants another dessert you'd be warmly welcome! ♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:16, 23 June 2025 (UTC)

Hi all, the judges are [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:The_Core_Contest/Winners&diff=prev&oldid=1297043631 happy to announce] The Core Contest's 2025 Winners:

: Herewith is {{user|Aza24}}'s announcement for the April/May 2025 Core Contest

• First place (and a prize of £120) goes to {{user|Phlsph7}} for his systemic overhaul of the Political Philosophy article. What was once an unwieldy entry—dominated by a sprawling history section of nearly three dozen subsections!—is now an accessible and well-structured survey of a complex and often polarizing subject. We particularly commend Phlsph7’s global, inclusive, and comprehensive approach. He has once again demonstrated exceptional skill in handling core topics with clarity and balance.
• Second place (and a prize of £100) goes to {{user|Dracophyllum}} for their outstanding work on both Trunk and Flower. The former was reimagined from a ~200 word stub into a richly detailed and impeccably sourced overview—an effort truly worthy of [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trunk_(botany)&diff=prev&oldid=1286333049 its dedicatee], the late and much-missed {{noping|Vami IV}}. Meanwhile, their improvements to the Flower article transformed an already strong entry into an exceptional one, now well on its way to passing FAC.
• Third place (and a prize of £80) goes to {{user|Vigilantcosmicpenguin}} for his major development of the Niamey article. The entry now proudly stands among the finest city articles on Wikipedia—from thirty scattered references to nearly 400 high-quality academic sources. We particularly commend his inclusion of numerous French-language sources and thoughtfully comprehensive approach to the topic.

The panel of judges was {{user|Femke}}, {{user|Aza24}} and {{user|Casliber}} 

Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to all of the participants! WMUK will reach out to you all individually soon to disperse prize money. – Aza24 (talk) 21:16, 23 June 2025 (UTC)

:Congrats everyone! DanCherek (talk) 21:50, 23 June 2025 (UTC)

:hooray — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 03:54, 24 June 2025 (UTC)

:Congrats to all! Should we consider a Singpost write-up? CMD (talk) 09:06, 24 June 2025 (UTC)

::Congrats everyone; yes I think that would give some nice exposure to the contest. Dracophyllum 09:27, 24 June 2025 (UTC)

:::Nice idea @CMD. I've started a blank draft here: User:Aza24/Signpost Story1, and will aim to write it up this weekend.

:::Any suggestions on what to include in particular?

:::@Dracophyllum @Johnbod @Femke @Casliber. Aza24 (talk) 21:27, 27 June 2025 (UTC)

::::intro about what the core contest is, the scale of previous improvements etc. Then compare to the success of this year, mention statistics and the winners/prizes. We ideally want to position the current competitiveness as a kind of "new normal" so we keep seeing more big improvements. Dracophyllum 22:10, 27 June 2025 (UTC)

::::That and saying that there are several different approaches, all valid: the FA in the making, the simple reference adding upgrade, the text rewrite of a poor article, and so on. Let us know when the draft is a bit more advanced, and thanks for doing this! Johnbod (talk) 14:01, 29 June 2025 (UTC)

:::::That's for starting the story! To echo John, talk about all the different types of improvements that we discuss as part of the judging, whether it's lead writing, understandability, sourcing, accessibility improvements, images, or resolving biases. —Femke 🐦 (talk) 17:04, 29 June 2025 (UTC)

:A big thanks to the organizers and judges for making this possible! Phlsph7 (talk) 09:43, 24 June 2025 (UTC)

::Indeed! Thanks & congratulations all round. In case there is any difficulty or delay in getting the prizes, please let us know here (or off-wiki if you prefer). Johnbod (talk) 14:38, 24 June 2025 (UTC)

:::Congrats all! Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 04:16, 27 June 2025 (UTC)